Mid Atlantic Dog Training Baltimore, Maryland

Tom is great. Our dog Karma, is a different dog after puppy boot camp. She was nervous, anxious, snapped and growled at some of our friends., and hated walks. Now we have a dog that we walk with comfortably for 30 minutes twice a day, has a safe place in our apartment for when guests come over, and is obedient. Thankful we found Tom and MADT.

If you have been searching for a reputable and knowledgeable dog trainer, you can stop looking now! Tom is absolutely one of the best in the area. Not only was he amazing with my puppy Remi, he provided clarity with his guidance and instructions so that I was well prepared to reinforce the lessons learned on my own. The key here is to have an open mind with understanding how your dog communicates and navigates his surroundings, as well as maintaining consistency with the trainings on your own, so your pup is successful. Extremely satisfied with the outcome and Remi and I can’t thank Tom enough for his patience and support!

It has been about a month since my dog (Mable) has completed her training with Tom. I’ve had multiple guests come over and tell that they can really see the improvement with her. Tom’s exercises have helped Mable become less anxious and set a job for her to have. Before she liked to bark and approach guests, bark at other dogs when passing, and have it her way. I am happy how far she has become and if I had to do it again, I would have done the training a lot sooner.

Tom did an amazing job helping us train our 3yo rescue lab. When we first adopted her, we could hardly walk her because of how much she pulled on the leash, and she would freak out around other dogs. Now she walks great on the leash and is obedient even in the presence of other dogs. Thanks Tom!

Tom has worked with both my dogs individually and has done a wonderful job. He's extremely knowledgeable and has given us great guidance. We know if we ever need his services again, he's just a phone call away

We worked with Tom in 2016 to prepare our rescue dog for the birth of our first child. Tom did an amazing job getting to know us and our dog to ensure a custom training program. Tom was consistent and professional but also made the training fun and engaging for us so it didn't feel like a chore. His firm but personable nature is the perfect fit for supporting a training program for humans and dogs. After 5 years and 2 kids we can consistently use the techniques we learned in training and our dog is a loveable and essential member of our family!

Thank goodness we found Tom when we adopted Bear. I have had many dogs but a rescue at 3-years old he came with challenges I did not know how to handle - very reactive to other dogs and unresponsive to commands. Tom worked with us to understand how to help him gain confidence and for us to be consistent in our handling of him. That was five years ago and today he is still the perfect neighborhood dog. Walks calmly and confidently and knows his commands and a perfect gentleman in the house. I am so proud of him!! I appreciate that throughout the years Tom has always been available for "tune ups" and I love the pack walks which are great reminders for both of us.

When we adopted our dog Frankenstein we realized very early that we had our hands full. Frankie was high-energy and extremely reactive to people and other dogs. We were equal parts exasperated, stressed, and worried. Thanks to the training program from Mid-Atlantic Dog Training, expertly taught by Tom, I’m not exaggerating when I say that we feel like we have a completely different dog. This program goes so much deeper than just getting your dog to memorize a series of commands. You will come to understand your dog in greater depth, allowing you to create a structure and environment that allows your dog to live a happy and peaceful life free of stress and fear. Tom provides instruction and resources that allowed us to become much more informed about not just our dog, but other dogs, dog training, and what the true relationship between a dog and their owner should and can be. You will leave this program with resources that are both tangible and intangible; we honestly felt like we got just as much training as Frankie. We are confident that we can continue to apply the lessons we’ve been taught and Frankie will continue to thrive and grow in positive ways. If you are willing to commit to putting in the work you will be amazed by the transformation you will see in your dog. Tom is a patient teacher, demonstrates exactly what you should be doing with your dog, and provides a series of resources so you can continue training in between sessions. Tom is generous with his time and genuinely wants to see your dog succeed. If you are at all stressed, anxious, or worried about your dogs behavior just know that it is absolutely possible to correct your dogs behavior (and correct your own) and have a great relationship with the pet that you love. You’ve found the right place. Thanks, Tom.

We started with Tom with our two dogs who had (sadly) been more in control of us than we of them. With his help, we change the dynamic in our house and took supportive yet firm control. Now we often get amazing complements on their behavior and have had very few issues with them. Would recommend, well worth the money.

TL;DR. If you’ve adopted a dog, you want to have a lifelong meaningful relationship with this dog, you want to feel calm and relaxed with your dog when in public, you want your dog to feel calm and relaxed in any environment, and – this is crucial – you’re willing to invest the work and effort to build your dog up to this amazing human-dog relationship – if you said YES to all – then just pick up the phone and call Tom. Tom is a professional, he is deeply passionate about what he does, and he’ll get you there – albeit won’t be easy. You’ll see, he’s to the point, he is not a gimmick, he deeply cares about the welfare of dogs, and this isn’t just a job for him: he is the real deal. The slightly longer story: we adopted Hurricane at two years old. See pictures, she’s super cute and a rockstar! Basically everyone who meets Hurricane thinks she’s awesome. But on day one it wasn’t so smooth. Hurricane, having survived some rough living on the streets, didn’t really know how to walk on a leash, how to be nice to other dogs, and generally wasn’t ready for dense inner-city living. So we turned to Tom for help. I won’t go into the details of the process, but in a nutshell it’s a combination of practice, practice, practice; educate yourself; and learn to understand your dog. But more importantly Tom hasn’t merely taught our dog to SIT, DOWN, COME, etc. – and those are very important, but more broadly taught us, and Hurricane, how to communicate with and trust each other, and even how to continue learning new skills moving forward. Because learning is a lifelong process, for dogs too. Fast forward a year, Hurricane is doing great! She loves her life, enjoys her walks, and is cool as a cucumber wherever we go and whatever is happening around her. We have solid communication with her, and we confidently know that we can take her with us everywhere – restaurants, stores, hiking, the park, whatever. She’s good, she’s calm, she’s having fun. And that’s it. That’s the story of Hurricane. And so yes, I very much recommend Tom.

We completed training with Tom a couple of months ago and we are so happy that we went with him and with the progress of our dog, Bonnie. Bonnie was about 6-7 months old when we started and she had a lot of issues with pulling on the leash when she was excited to see other dogs and with reliably following commands inside and outside of the house. Since the training, Bonnie has been great with loose leash walking and we are proud of her behavior around other people and her obedience. There are still things to work on, as training is always ongoing, but we are now confident we have to the tools to work with her. The training asks a lot of you because a majority of the training involves how you interact with the dog and the proper way to interact with the dog, but the results are well worth it. I highly recommend Tom and his training!

I wish I could give Tom more than 5 stars, his training saved our dog Waffles and our family. We got our dog, Waffles, when she was a puppy. She got injured at 6 months old and had to have surgery, the recovery took about four months total. After the surgery and recovery we noticed some problem behaviors that we needed to address: she pulled constantly on the leash, she would sometimes get protective of me and growl at other dogs if they approached, she barked at all our neighbors, jumped on our friends to greet them, and the worst part was she started to jump all over us and biting our clothes like we were dogs to play with (this happened everyday to the point we would wear clothes we didn't care about). We reached out to Tom because we had friends who used him in the past and had good results. We had one meeting where he explained all of his background and how he got started dog training. We were already impressed. After the first session Waffles was not barking at our neighbors, she walked very well on leash, and she would stay in her "place" instead of roaming the house. IT WAS AMAZING. I actually cried when I was sitting outside with her and my neighbor came out who she always barked at, she looked at my and sat instead. I will never forget that moment. Tom's training wasn't easy but it was effective. We are better dog owners because of him and we are so thankful. He saved our dog Waffles and our little family. I highly recommend using him if you think you and your dog could benefit from this type of training!

Reached out to Tom via Facebook as I recently got a puppy and wanted to begin training. Tom responded with a short message that he was not able to assist me, and no other explanation or time line if he is just not taking new clients or anything. If that is the case, it would be great if he updated his Yelp and Facebook to state he is not taking new clients or at least to offer more info on his pages as to how to become a new client or any more information. As a business owner it is important to communicate with clients or potential clients, i will be going with another business.

Tom was very helpful with training our two dogs, one middle age and one younger, and his price was also very reasonable especially with only a small increase for our extra dog. We otherwise would not have thought to train our older dog as his behavior was relatively less problematic, but he really ended up benefitting too. Tom provided useful reading materials and also plenty of his time, and it was very convenient and helpful that he travels to us for in and around home training where it's most useful and effective.

It has been almost 9 months since we completed our training with Tom at Mid-Atlantic Dog Training. We had adopted our rescue dog (Tiga) about a year earlier, and she had started adopting some more aggressive behaviors that we found …

We found Tom after doing extensive research on finding the right training for our 8 month old puppy Ramsay. Our main concern was Ramsay's resource guarding and biting and we knew we had to curb these behaviors as soon as possible. We are so grateful that we went with Tom and couldn't be happier with all of Ramsay's progress. Tom teaches you how to be a leader for your dog and gives you the tools to continue to work on their needs even once his program is completed. We also enjoyed that Tom comes to your home for the trainings- this was very convenient! We feel much more confident in our ability to lead Ramsay and he is a much calmer, happier boy now! Thanks Tom!!

We recently completed training with Tom and our now 7 month old Australian Shepherd, Cesare. We could not be happier with the whole experience! From ease in scheduling to the paper handouts and informative articles Tom shared, the whole process went smoothly. We learned so much about what it means to be responsible, good, and happy dog parents. Once we learned that it is our role to provide structure for our pup, not just play, the training was actually very intuitive. Dogs want to do tasks and please their people, and we're happier when they behave. Cesare's training was probably on the easier side since we got him at 10 weeks and started training at 4 months, but I am confident that we will be able to catch and curb and bad behaviors that may develop because of what we learned. Through the tools that Tom gave us, I know what being a good dog owner looks like now instead of guessing at it. We wanted to give this little guy a strong foundation for learning as he grows, and with Tom's help we did exactly that. Thanks Tom! See you soon on a pack walk.

We had to train our reactive 20 month old G doodle to be more secure and calm. Tom persevered with us, and, although it took several months we got to where we wanted to be. Initially we had misgivings about various approaches but they really helped his training overall. They really helped his heeling, and Tom reassured us at every step. He also pointed us to readings that also informed us. Thanks Tom.

Tom was everything we needed in a dog trainer, and more. Everything ultimately came down to how we were approaching our relationship with our puppy. Tom gave us the tools to become leaders for our now 8 month old puppy by establishing necessary structure and boundaries that will set us up for a lifetime of success. By taking Tom's insights and philosophy to heart, adjusting our own approach, and diligently working through the lessons, we successfully curbed the attention-seeking behaviors we were struggling with (nipping, barking, trouble settling) and are now extremely proud of our dog who feels more and more like a companion every day. Our friends and family who knew Gus before Tom's program have commented on how he's such a different dog now - in all the best ways! Tom was patient with my partner and I as we navigated new training techniques and asked a million questions along the way. Everything we learned will no doubt prove to be invaluable as we continue along with our training. We look forward to participating in pack walks and sharing Gus' future successes with Tom!

A number of weeks ago, my wife and I completed a 5-lesson training session with Tom Coaker at Mid-Atlantic Dog Training, and we could not be happier with the results. Tom's slogan is "Where dogs learn to make you proud," and I cannot think of one more fitting for his business. A little background: My wife and I have always owned dogs, and we currently have a German Shepherd named Briscoe (8) and a Plott Hound mix named McCoy (3), both of whom we adopted from the MDSPCA. Both dogs have shown high levels of anxiety, and McCoy, the hound, was highly dog aggressive and reactionary. He has bitten both my wife and me when redirecting his aggression, and he eventually bit my father-in-law, which was the event that prompted us to call Tom. From the very beginning, we were both very impressed with the professional nature of Mid-Atlantic Dog Training and with the breadth of knowledge Tom displays as a dog-trainer. It is clear that he is truly passionate about the work, and he remains abreast of the newest developments in the field. He is flexible in working with his customers' schedules, and was responsive and encouraging when we would reach out with questions. Additionally, Tom offers many of the items needed for the successful completion of the training course, and is willing to charge less than if one were to purchase these same materials from a traditional pet store or Amazon. If you are considering hiring someone to help train your dog (or dogs!), we cannot recommend Tom at Mid-Atlantic Dog Training enough! Like many long-time pet owners, my wife and I thought that we understood what needed to be done to help calm our anxious and potentially dangerous dogs. However, nothing that we did was effective, and Tom came in and immediately helped us change our own perceptions about what it means to be a good dog owner. I am not joking when I write that we both noticed a significant improvement after just the first lesson, and by the end of the course, we feel like we have two different, much happier and more secure pups! I will say that the course does require a lot of work on the part of the owner(s), and it is important that you keep up with "the homework." However, Tom's guidance and clear advice make the lessons and the practice easy, and I am sure that anyone who works with Tom will have similar positive results. Even though our official course is over, Tom has made it clear that he will remain available to help if we should ever have a question or an issue, and he has even invited us and our dogs to join him and other current and former customers on pack walks where the dogs are allowed to socialize in a productive and meaningful setting. We are very happy that we called Tom at Mid-Atlantic Dog Training, and even happier that he was able to help our dogs become ones that we can be proud of!

We started with nervous and anxious Great Dane. Tom did a great job training us. He corrected us and taught us how to properly train, reward, and correct our dog. Now we have a calm and confident dog.

I really can't even put into words how grateful we are for Tom's training! We had taken our mixed breed dog , Tammy, to multiple trainers that gave her a good baseline of the commands. But we were still having issues with multiple things: not listening around distractions, pulling on the leash, being too focused and reactive on other dogs while walking, and most concerning of all, we could not have anyone into our house because Tammy would go wild barking and growling and the problem was only getting worse and we did not know how to control it. We did not want something bad to happen. From the very first meeting with Tom, before we even signed up to work with him, he explained that when Tammy was reacting the way she did inside our house...me trying to calm her down was not what Tammy needed at all! She only heard "good girl" because of the tone of my voice! Such a valuable lesson. She is a dog who needs structure and discipline combined with love and affection. Tom has a great system that he uses for training and him coming to your house really helps...we now feel we have the tools to continue training Tammy and providing the structure and balance she needs to live a happy, comfortable life. He was a great coach to me and my husband as well --because so much of dog training is actually human training and developing the right habits for us so that we can help her develop the right habits for her too! We have seen a significant change in the way our dog listens to us and we have even had people over and the situation is 100 times more manageable than it used to be...she looks to us now instead of feeling like she has to take charge of every "dangerous" situation. She even warms up to the people we have over more quickly and that was just not possible before this training. I am so glad we found Tom and did not give up on training Tammy. I know many people feel that their dogs are too difficult or unmanageable but so many of these problems can be fixed with simple mindset changes and a system like the one Tom uses. He is very responsive over email and addressed our concerns individually , patiently, and with no judgement. We had to re-learn how to think about Tammy's problems and we can now say we are very proud of our dog!! We would recommend Tom's training to anyone and everyone that is willing to put in the time and effort it takes to succeed with your dog.

I started looking for a dog trainer when my dog Ralphie's leash reactivity seemed to be getting worse. I know that dogs feed off of their owners and that I had to change my behavior on the other end of the leash to start helping him. I did the best I could on my own, but in the end I realized that I needed help. I found the Mid-Atlantic Dog Training Facebook page and saw all of the success stories about dogs that had had issues very similar to Ralphie's. The before and after videos really gave me hope. My vet also recommend Tom without me having mentioned him, so I knew it wasn't a coincidence! From the very first meeting with Tom, I was very impressed with his professionalism, experience, and depth of knowledge about dogs, dog training, and teaching people. We talked about my goals with Ralphie and my other dog Oliver (while Oliver didn't have issues like Ralphie's, he did have a high prey drive and tendency to ignore me). Tom explained how important structure and routine were for dogs and how I could best establish that leadership role with them both inside the house and outside on the leash. He also made me realize how important consistency is because dogs will pick up on inconsistency and they really will take a mile if you give them an inch! I won't give away his techniques, but I will say that while we did have to make some changes to our routine and it took some time to adjust, it's been a lifestyle change that I don't want to give up now! My dogs are still works in progress and training is never something that should just stop, but I can that they are both much more relaxed and confident dogs. Ralphie used to always sleep with me and never wanted me to leave his sight. I get an actual good night's rest now and he is no longer glued to me. I can also say that two days ago we went to a busy, city park and were able to calmly sit and simply observe for a while right next to a duck pond and then next to a dog park. It was a very proud day! I highly recommend Tom and Mid-Atlantic Dog Training if you're a motivated dog owner and are committed to your training goals!

Tom was excellent, he definitely gave us the tough love we needed in order to get our boy Duke trained. Duke is a rescue, who has a mysterious past we don’t know much about. But soon after we got him we realized he had anxiety. Being first …

We contacted Tom for help training our 5 year old rescue mix. What we didn't realize was that he would wind up training us rather than her - and the result is that we now know how to communicate clearly with her about what behaviors we do …

Tom is a wonderful dog trainer-- but in reality he is more of a human trainer! He not only helped our dog (then puppy) Cali to gain confidence and blossom into the well-behaved, awesome dog she is today, but he also gave Nick and I the confidence we needed to be great leaders for our pup. Cali is our first dog as a couple, and Nick's very first dog, and without Tom we truly would have been lost. The best part of Mid-Atlantic Dog Training is that once you train with Tom he becomes a friend and resource for life. We are looking forward to staying in touch with him for years to come! :)

Tom helped us work with our pit mix, Tucker, we adopted from a shelter. Before working with Tom, Tucker was anxious, destructive, and somewhat aggressive with us and with other dogs. Tom showed us how to provide leadership to Tucker …

We contacted Tom to help us with our 3-year old lab-mix, Brady, and his leash-pulling and aggressive tendencies towards strangers. Tom was very helpful and non-judgmental in introducing structure and routine to our lives. We immediately saw changes in our dog's behavior. Due to our many years of developing bad habits, we required some extra training sessions to maximize our success, which was accommodated. Even after completion of our training, we are invited to attend pack-walks with other dogs and their owners. The best part is that Tom comes to your house! This was great for us because this is where most of the problem-behaviors happened. Tom was understanding and flexible with our busy schedules-- offering weekend and evening hours. We would recommend Mid-Atlantic Dog Training to anyone who is motivated to work hard to make changes for you and your pup!

We recently got Juice, a 3-yr-old Pit Mix found by Animal Control in Anne Arundel as a stray who had somehow made his way to a shelter in VA. As a stray/rescue we didn't know what exactly we were dealing with and having two cats, we looked for a trainer quickly. We couldn't have asked for a better find than Tom! Juice was originally reactive to people at the door and our two cats, had poor leash behavior, and came to us very much acting like he was in charge. We briefly met with another trainer before Tom who really did nothing but scare us regarding his original thoughts on Juice. Thanks to Tom, Juice is now a calm, well-behaved guy that happily bounces into his crate each night, stays on his "place" in the living room, completely ignores the cats, walks on lead like a champ, is no longer reactive to dogs on our walks, and is passive when people come to the door and into our home. We could tell right away that we were onboard with Tom's methodology - one that has logical backing and has been proven to work time and time again. Tom does an excellent job of breaking down the methods and tools into multiple trainings that easily build on one another. He was positive, fair, and understanding of our concerns and hopes for Juice and our family. Be prepared to do a lot of learning yourselves! Tom will give you the knowledge and tools, but you must be willing to work on your own and most importantly, stay consistent! Juice now has the self-control that he was missing thanks to Tom. We now must continue the daily work of both reinforcing and continuing to build on good habits we've made with Juice and know that Tom will be available if we ever need him in the future.

This review of Tom is long overdue. We rescued Joey a lab retriever mix at 3 months old. We started noticing unwanted behaviors such as; pulling on the leash, getting over excited when seeing …